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More Control: How Vocational Reforms Are Changing Trades for the Better
After a period of disruption and uncertainty, the trades industry is welcoming reforms that will give them more control over the training and qualification of professionals.
The government announced an overhaul that includes replacing the existing six Workforce Development Council with an expected seven Industry Skills board. This initiative will take effect from the beginning of 2026.
The reforms follow a series of changes within the trades industry. At the end of 2024, the government confirmed that it would disestablish Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology. The institute comprises 16 polytechnics and nine training organisations, hosting over 250,000 students nationwide.
This decision would result in a network of standalone private training providers or a merger and shutdown of other providers. The Tertiary Education Commission identified eight consultants that Te Pūkenga must hire to plan its own disestablishment.
According to reports, these consultants will undergo an ongoing process of thoroughly reviewing the financial situations faced by technical institutes and polytechnics around the country, while developing a new strategy for the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga.
Giving industries more control and confidence
These reforms are said to give control to industry players as well as independent and regional training providers to determine what the industry needs in workforce training.
Penny Simmonds, Vocational Education Minister, stated that the training of apprentices and industry workers has become disconnected from the realities of their actual jobs. This system overhaul aims to change that, giving those affected more influence over how apprentices and training are done.
According to Simmonds, a transition period is expected to begin at the start of 2026. Work-based learning units currently at Te Pūkenga will be managed by the new Industry Skills boards during a consultation period, which may take up to two years. Additionally, apprentices and trainees currently studying will be moved with their units, while new students can enrol directly with new work-based learning private providers, polytechnics or wānanga.
From there, the new boards will then decide whether to turn these training providers into standalone private institutes or to use existing training establishments. Simmons also states that the new board members will not be allowed to own a training provider to maintain transparency.
“It’s very much putting industry back in the driver seat, but this time, it is making sure that the standard-setting, qualification, development, quality assurance part will be separate from the delivery after that two-year period,”
“I think that’s really critical, because while the industry training organisations … set up like that over time, they morphed into also doing the delivery of some of them,” Simmonds says.
New private training providers will need to register with NZQA, and bodies will need to determine their own right move.
The industry responds
Brian Dillon, spokesperson from the Building and Construction Training Fund, says that while he wasn’t convinced the current system needed a complete overhaul, its replacement was “the best we could have hoped for, given the circumstances”.
Dillon states that the announcement is light on details, but it does show that the government is listening to industry feedback. The decision aligns with the majority of responses received during the 2024 consultation and more recent ones.
“The current Government came along and made it clear it was their campaign to disestablish, which is what they’re doing. It was probably on the cusp of gaining some momentum and showing how the model could work,” Dillon says.
“But that’s by the by … now we’ve got an opportunity to engage with the minister and the officials, the likes of the (Tertiary Education Commission) and the wider construction sector. I think it’s the best we could have hoped for, given the circumstances.”
Dillon also mentions that there were certain parts of Te Pūkenga that worked. He hopes the transition period will be carried out with minimal delays and disruption, as the current reforms began in 2019.
“Come 2027, that’s eight years of change. We’d like to see (the changes implemented) no sooner than that, so employers, trainees and future trainees can engage in the system with confidence that they know what they’re getting into … they can make informed decisions and get on with their jobs and careers.
“We’ve had five or six years of disruption and uncertainty. We need to lock this down there,” says Dillon.
Key Takeaway
Recent reforms have shown that the government is serious about encouraging better processes within the trades industry. Construction companies should capitalise on this potential growth and explore avenues to increase their competitiveness in the market.
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